Conductive inks currently used in printed electronics are mainly used to form wiring patterns on wiring boards such as display panels, solar cell panels, digitizers, and printed circuit boards.
As such conductive inks, silver (Ag)-containing inks and silver pastes are mainly used. The silver-containing conductive inks may include, other than silver, metallic particles such as gold, platinum, and palladium.
The silver inks or silver pastes are formed into wiring patterns on wiring boards through a thermal sintering process. However, silver included in conductive inks is very expensive and thus, when wiring patterns are formed using the conductive inks, there is limitation in reducing fabrication costs of resultant wiring boards. In addition, since a thermal sintering process is required, there are many limitations in selecting a wiring board or an ink.
Further, when wiring patterns are formed using a silver ink or a silver paste, problems such as flaking, insufficient adhesion, and high resistance of a wiring pattern formed after thermal sintering are encountered.